Salade Niçoise is Not What You Might Think It Is
Get your facts straight regarding salade niçoise, direct from the source
Aug 9, 2016 | 10:01 am
By
Monte Mathews
Staff Writer
We have the scoop on how a Salade Niçoise should really be made.
Unless you want to get your head taken off by your server, never ask where the cooked potatoes and green beans are when you order the famed salade niçoise in its home city of Nice on France’s Cote D’Azur. Heaven forbid you miss the tuna you may have gotten used to back home too.
It turns out the salad is a victim of its own success. It’s been amended and altered from its original recipe so that even the sunniest locals frown upon variations of the real thing. And what is the real thing? Salade niçoise doesn’t even appear in the bible of French cuisine, “Larousse Gastronomique.” Instead, it is pictured as “Mediterranean salad.”
We asked a local for help with the genuine article and here’s what she said: “I am French, I live in Nice, so I can assure you Salade Niçoise does notcontain green beans, potatoes, or any other ‘cooked’ vegetables. If you want a realsalade niçoise, you must use these (and only these) ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, green peppers, onions, basil, garlic, hard-cooked eggs, anchovies, black olives, olive oil, salt, and pepper, of course!” After some cajoling, she parted with her recipe for the salad, insisting that if it is to be true to itself, all of its ingredients must come directly from the market.
Recipe for The True Salade Niçoise
This dish has been amended and altered so that even the sunniest locals frown upon variations of the real thing…and here it is!
Ingredients
10 Medium tomatoes
1 Cucumbers
12 Small, fresh artichokes, cut into slices
2 Green peppers
1 Red onion
6 Basil leaves
1 Garlic clove
3 Hard-boiled eggs
12 Anchovy fillets
3.5 Ounces black olives
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1. Make a dressing with 6 tablespoons of olive oil, finely chopped basil, salt, and pepper. Chill well in the refrigerator before serving.
2. Cut the tomatoes in quarters and salt slightly on the cutting board. Set aside in a bowl. Also cut the eggs into quarters eighths.
3.Cut the fillets of anchovy in three or four pieces each.
4. Finely slice the peeled cucumber.
5. Slice the onion in rings, the green pepper into strips and the artichokes into quarters.
6. Rub the bottom and the walls of a large bowl with a garlic clove cut in two, arrange all the ingredients inside, with the exception of tomatoes.
7. Drain tomatoes and salt them slightly before incorporating them into the salad.